Teacher Perceptions of Highly Gifted Students in the United States and West Germany

Abstract

Each of 434 German and 446 American high school teachers nominated one student as highly gifted. The teachers aaught native language, mathematics/physics, music/art, or modern foreign language. All estimated what percentage of their students were highly gifted and rated their nominess on 84 characteristics. The percentage of students estimated to be highly gifted was higher for Americans. The characteristics were factor analyzed separately in the two samples and yielded three common factors. A three way MANOVA using these factors as dependent variables found that American students were described as more popular and more achievement-oriented than their German counterparts; Germans were described as slightly more self-centered than the Americans; boys were perceived as more setf-centered than girls.